In a direct delivery campaign, such as the mailing of a seasonal catalog to customers, timely delivery of mail is important. Thus, there is a need to monitor mail delivery to aid in planning such a campaign, and to identify and correct problem areas in an ongoing campaign.
One known method of monitoring the delivery status of mail is used by the postal service to monitor delivery between different post offices. This method provides no information concerning delivery to the ultimate destination.
Other known monitoring methods utilize return forms or postcards which are included with a piece of mail. A respondent upon receiving the mail piece fills in requested information on the form or postcard and mails it back to the originator of the mailing. However, because of reliance on a return mailing, such a monitoring method provides responses which are not received quickly enough to take corrective action in the event that problems exist. Also, the delivery status information must be manually correlated once it is received. With a large mailing this can be burdensome.
The present invention is intended to overcome these and other problems with delivery monitoring methods.